MEDIDAS PROVISIONALES Y DEFINITIVAS

that it owes its origin to, and still rests upon the support of, the army and navy. A militarist administration ... playing with the idea of democracy is surely a phenomenon which no other country in the world can exhibit. Great Britain, [Annual Report 1934], F.O. 371/19379.

established practice of having legislation debated and voted on in the National Assembly before being rejected or officially promulagatecL As Crosby acutely noted:

A more dangerous method of governing the people could...scarcely have been invented for, by ignoring the People's Assembly [the National Assembly] the Cabinet sets itself up as the sole arbiter of what public opinion is supposed to be and the temptation to proclaim measures of an oppressive nature is obviously great.30

Wichit sought to diffuse any such objections by explaining that in a constitutional, democratic system [rabop thamanun rabop prachathipatai], the Prime Minister was the peoples' representative who could be removed from office by means of a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly. While this was theoretically possible, the fact that the House was composed of equal numbers of government appointed members and publicly elected representatives made such a development highly unlikely. At the same time, Wichit explained that the term nayokrathamontri [Prime Minister] derived from the Pali word nay aka , meant leader [phu nam], and pointed out that it was the duty of the people to follow him. Thus, according to Wichit's logic, in the absence of a no-confidence motion, the leader's pronouncements were to be regarded as expressions of public opinion.31

In the same announcement, Wichit also employed metaphoric imagery in order to make his explanation about the importance of the Prime Minister's role and the function of State Conventions more easily understood and accepted by his audience:

Our destination is a nearby crystal island [Ko Kaeo] which can only be reached by sea. The waters are treacherous; submerged rocks and whirlpools abound, deadly sharks swim freely. To reach our goal we must be sure that the boat in which we travel has an adept helmsman who knows the way. What is more, to reach the crystal island of joy it is essential that we help each other and paddle as one. The helmsman calls on us to 'come together* and board the craft. Those who don't wish to make the voyage will go their own way or remain where they are. However if they see us approaching our desired goal they will call out and ask us to come back for them....Their cries will be ignored and when night falls they will have to face tigers or other dangers and perish. There are also those who will come on the boat with us

30 31

Great Britain, F.O. 371/23586, 14 July 1939. N A. S.T. 0701.29/4.

but without wanting to paddle because they think it is beneath them. They will let us exert ourselves while sitting around relaxing. We will not object to this,...but those who dangle their feet in the water to slow the boat down or try to make it capsize will be thrown to the sharks. We will continue to paddle following the orders of the helmsman until, at last, we arrive at our destination where we will experience the happiness that awaits us there.32

The imagery used is simple and familiar, invoking a number of Thai literary cultural associations. In a broad sense the setting of the passage, a voyage through dangerous waters to an island of refuge and goodness shares resonances with Sunthon Phu's epic romance adventure Phra Aphaimani, in which the protagonist and his son escape from the giantess Nang Phi Su'a Samut with the help of mermaids to Ko Kaeo Phitsadan an enchanted island. The boat in the voyage described by Wichit clearly refers to the nation with the helmsman being none other than Phibun himself.33 The use of the boat and helmsman metaphor here is notable in that it reflects a direct parallel with the passage written by Vajiravudh some twenty years earlier when he indentified the king as captain and the boat as the nation.34

In a manner similar to Duang Chan, the heroine in Lu'at Suphan, Wichit's helmsman calls on his compatriots to 'come together' and unite for the sake of the nation. Some ignore the call and forsake their place, others who make the journey try to impede the boat's progress are labelled as enemies by means of the old well-known proverb ao thao ra nam hai ru'a doen cha [to drag one's feet], and are similarly excluded. On the other hand those who unite and follow the helmsman's commands (i.e. the Conventions) reach the desired goal of national security and happiness. Wichit's use of metaphor was clearly designed to have a powerful manipulative effect.35

In the discourse he developed, the audience was presented with a scenario regarding their fate as a nation which offered no alternative: they must put their trust in the helmsman or face extinction.

32 Ibid..

The parallel with Mussolini in the 1930s as 'helmsman of the European ship', and Chairman Mao as the Great Helmsman in China during the Cultural Revolution is striking and suggests the cross-cultural relevance of such imagery. The reference to Mussolini comes from, Smith, D.M. Mussolini's Roman Empire, Penguin Books, 1977: 54.